From the cheap seats: Heartstopping Saints win over Eagles

We’re starting to believe that if there isn’t some drama, it’s not a Saints game. They took care of the Eagles to advance to the NFC Championship Game.

The New Orleans Saints’ Divisional Round game against the Philadelphia Eagles was not ever imagined to be the blowout the Saints achieved in the regular season. However, I’m sure Saints fans would have liked to have seen something maybe a bit closer to that outcome over the nail biter we experienced. But the Saints emerged victorious by a score of 20 to 14. And in the end, that’s all that truly matters.

One of our worries about a team that has so much time off is that timing tends to be off and rust sets in. This offensive line, in its best formation, hasn’t been on the field altogether for a full game since Week 9. So there was likely to be some initial drama. We just weren’t looking forward to quite so much initial drama.

The Saints received the opening kickoff and after a nice return by Alvin Kamara, on the first play from scrimmage Drew Brees underthrows Ted Ginn, Jr. for an interception. Not the way to start off the game. The Eagles drove the field and scored a TD, putting us in an early hole. Our next possession was not much better, going three plays for no yards and a punt. In two offensive possessions the Saints had run four plays for no yards. Almost unthinkable.

Giving the ball back to the Eagles, they marched the field again for a second touchdown, and the fans went silent. Another tough possession by the Saints resulting in another punt put a damper on the crowd.

From that point forward, the Saints righted the ship and sailed with the wind. It wasn’t necessarily the offensive output we’d been looking for. And contrary to what the Saints players might think, the fans aren’t really looking for video game type scoring every time out. Just a modest cushion would do. This wasn’t the cushion we were looking for, but the win is better than the look. Heart palpitations aside, this ended up being a good Saints win.